ANTI-CHOLERA. 239 



to find his toes were made "of softer materials than 

 the roads : at all events, he found out a better way of 

 putting his foot to the ground, and became as safe a 

 horse there and elsewhere as ever was ridden. This 

 horse was ten years old when he went into Wales. 



Not to assume to myself any ingenuity for adopt- 

 ing my ant-hill plan with horses, I will mention 

 what first put me on it. 



We had an orchard at my father's well stocked with 

 apples, pears, cherries, and one remarkable fine brown 

 greengage tree, to which fruit my mamma was parti- 

 cularly partial : so was I, but I was also very partial to 

 mamma. Now these two partialities suited (in sport- 

 ing phrase) my book to a nicety, for, God help her ! 

 I took care she ran no risk of cholera from the quantity 

 she got of the greengages. Between these and the 

 other produce of the orchard, how I escaped the same 

 complaint I know not : a more worthy scion of the 

 same stock would have died of it. In short, no pas- 

 toral poet, no enthusiastic admirer of nature ever felt 

 or feigned more devotion to the Arcadia of his 

 imagination than I did to this said orchard ; so did a 

 large pig we had ; and, odd as it may appear till 

 explained, his predilection for fruit gave me a hint as 

 to accustoming a horse to bend his knees. Loud 

 and bitter were my invectives against this pig for 

 poaching on my especial manor : many a race had I 

 after him ; many a grip had he from my dogs on 

 that part of his corpus porci that was the nearest to 

 his pursuers ; many a touch of whipcord had the 

 same part felt from my hunting-whip ; for all which 

 attentions he expressed his proper appreciation by a 

 continued strain of harmony, that, if railroads had 

 then existed, would have made the neighbours look 



